Don’t believe everything you read! Some of us churchgoers wouldn’t vote Tory simply because they’re Tory…and some of us (more than you might think from press coverage) are in full support of marriage equality.

So, if the bigots don’t vote for the Tories as a protest, then they’re handing the election to Labour. Are they that stupid? The Tory back benchers must be delusional to believe that voting against equal marriage is going to guarantee their party re-election considering that churchgoers most of whom vote Tory are going to have any significant impact on the outcome of a Tory victory. They’re signing their own death warrant. It’s beyond hilarious.

This was another COMRES poll, this time with only 569 responses. We know COMRES have conflicts of interest in their leaderships links to the Catholic church, and that they don’t set questions, C4M do. We also know they skewed a previous poll, including more 65+ respondents than are represented in the population, and that 65+ are less likely to support equal marriage. They also always seem to hold off actually publishing the poll for some days, to allow the message to sink in, before it can be properly discredited, by which time most people have forgotten what poll it was.

If 61% of Christians (as reported by PN) support full equality, then this poll is clearly wrong. Support if you strip out churchgoers in other polls gives 75-85% approval for SSM.

Although UKIP has shown no signs of wanting to abandon its position that it is a single-issue party focused on Europe, we may see “dog whistle” politics used in local UKIP campaigning to attempt to woo voters away from the Conservatives using marriage equality, and anything else where the Tories look soft to the hang ‘em and flog ‘em brigade.

Whether UKIP will profit from this I’m not sure; those voters are often the same ones who feel Mr Cameron has cheated them of a referendum, and may find themselves drawn to UKIP anyway. Meanwhile some voters will be scared away if they feel UKIP is too socially conservative. For this to be an effective tactic for UKIP, it will have to be a very well-pitched dog-whistle.

In addition, most people don’t vote on single issues, even people who are gay. If the BNP promised us complete equal rights in every single aspect and several seats on their cabinet — we still wouldn’t vote for them :-p We all have a range of things we consider important, jobs and economy, social justice, welfare, the NHS, opportunity to advance. Many of us might have heavily weighted ‘our rights’, and considered only Labour could get in and do that, but it wouldn’t be the only reason for making a choice. Some people who are gay voted Tory back in the 80s and 90s — I don’t really understand why, but I guess they felt some other policy was more important than their own rights !!!!

Will churchgoers suddenly veer off in large numbers to vote BNP or UKIP? Absolutely not. Social justice IS an important component, as is the NHS, welfare, etc. If they vote Labour, LibDem, Tory or Green they’ll be getting marriage equality in any case.

David, that language is unkind – particularly when considering the many gay people who go to or are involved in the church. In the wrong person, it could also be a bit sinister. In the same chilling way that Germans in the 1930s described Jews as ‘scum’ and worse – your sentence could give the appearance of having similar views on churchgoers.

Wow, how scary this much be for Cameron. If a slight majority of church goers might rethink voting for him it could cost him literally TENS of votes! However will he be able to sleep at night worrying?

“…some supporters of marriage equality were disappointed…”
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Just two years ago these “some supporters” were cheering up the homophobic Tories … claiming to believe in their change of heart and a sudden interested in marriage equality … so we warned them about their possible future disappointments … which are now starting to materialise…

My only stint of ‘churchgoing’ was with some lovely Quakers in Gloucester, and of course that makes me a prime candidate to be rather happy with Cameron’s marriage stance… still not likely to ever vote Tory though ^-^

I do agree Merlyn. I think the Quakers ethics are fantastic. Among many things, they support Equal Marriage and are happy to take LGBT religious marriage services. Not all Christians are biblical literalists / fundamentalists.

Although church-goers may be less likely to vote Tory in the event they bring in marriage equality, gay people may be MORE likely to vote Tory so the trade-off could be worthwhile. My opinion is that the Conservatives shouldn’t keep dragging it’s feet on the issue, there should be a free vote in the Commons NOW. The previous Labour government equalised the age of consent at 16, introduced employment protection for gays, allowed gays to serve in the military, scrapped Clause 28 and brought in Civil Unions and all these ended up being non-issues for the population as a whole. If David Cameron stops pussyfooting and lives up to his promise now, then the Conservatives can get on with other important business and they still have two and a half years before the next general election.

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